Paul Bettany’s bear hunt was a disaster

British actor Paul Bettany has started hunting his personal trainer for fun – in a bid to be taken more seriously as an outdoorsman.

The “Master & Commander” star can’t stomach the idea of killing live animals but fears he has to develop certain wild skills to justify living in remote Vermont.

He explains, “As an Englishman, you start from a kind of butch deficit… but I’m doing my best. I’ve been trying really hard; we invented this game – because I don’t hunt or fish… called The Great Western Bear Hunt.

“We buy a load of paintball guns and I get my trainer, Mike Hood, to dress up as a bear… and we hunt my friend through the woods.”

But the game turned serious recently when Hood disappeared in the forest near Bettany’s Vermont home for over five hours.

The actor recalls, “Five hours passed and it got dark and rainy and there came a point when we thought, ‘This has gone too far’. We’d been looking for him, so we called the police… They set up these beacons.”

Hood eventually showed up hours later and explained he had got lost in the woods and stumbled onto a road miles away, where he started flagging down cars – but no one would stop because he was dressed as a bear.

Bettany adds, “He thumbed this lift and this poor woman stopped, she had two kids in the back of the car… and he went, ‘I need a lift, I’m late for a party. Will you give me lift?’ and she said, ‘No, I won’t… because you’re wearing a [bleep]ing bear costume,’ and hit the gas.”

But the hunt-gone-wrong hasn’t put Bettany and his wife Jennifer Connelly off the idea of staging another outdoor event this year.

The actor says, “This Thanksgiving, we’re going to do it again, but with the Great Western Turkey Shoot – I’m gonna dress him as a turkey.”